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Imposing Savannah antique took round-about route to Andrew Low House

An 1810 breakfront which was passed from family to family over several generations and across the county was recently donated to the historic Andrew Low House.

"It looks as though it was made to go there," Alice Daily said of the imposing breakfront secretary sitting in the family parlor of the Andrew Low House, but this exceptional example of 19th-century American craftsmanship has covered a lot of miles since it was purchased by a prominent Savannahian in 1810.

Daily was instrumental in bringing the breakfront back to this city after a sojourn that reads like an episode from a Eugenia Price novel.

Its initial owner - Robert Mackay - was a character in her books, and his connection to this breakfront is as plain as the label on the back of one of its drawers. Yellowed and torn, this piece of paper identifies the breakfront's maker - Joseph B. Barry and Son of Philadelphia.

Trained in Dublin and London, Barry (1757-1838) was one of the young nation's leading furniture craftsmen. His pieces are prized at auctions and are fixtures in collections across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Though his workshop was in Philadelphia, Barry had a showroom in Savannah, said Low House manager Stephen Bohlin. It was located in the Meins and Mackay warehouse for several months in 1800, and Robert Mackay worked at that company's Liverpool office for several years.

In 1810, as tensions escalated between the United States and England, Mackay decided to return home. On his way, said Bohlin, he commissioned Barry's firm to construct a mahogany breakfront.

Once completed, it sat in the Mackay House on Broughton Street until 1878. It then passed to the Stiles and Mills families, said Bohlin, and was taken to Boston and eventually to San Francisco.

Then, about 10 years ago, some Mackay descendents from San Francisco - the William N. Mills family - visited the Low House, said Daily. She is a longtime member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia, a heritage organization that's owned the Low House since 1928.

Since the initial meeting, the Mills have given the house museum several items and decided to pass the breakfront along as well.

It was carefully packaged and sent to Savannah, Daily said, but it still had one more stop before it could be displayed - the York Street workshop of craftsman and restorer Greg Guenther.

"It had some minor damage and veneer loss, typical for a piece of that time period," said Guenther, whose shop has earned a nationwide reputation.

The breakfront, typical of Barry pieces, had an "extremely fine level of craftsmanship," right down to its distinctive turned-beehive type feet, he said.

Now, gleaming and displaying museum-quality artifacts, Barry's masterpiece sits comfortably against an interior wall in the Low House, looking as though it had occupied that spot for decades.

Lowdown on the Low House

It was built in 1848-49 for Savannah cotton merchant Andrew Low. The architect was John Norris, whose other Savannah structures include the U.S. Custom House, the Green-Meldrim House and the Mercer-Williams House Museum.

Low, in 1854, married for the second time. His new bride was Mary Cowper Stiles, and their home overlooking Lafayette Square became a popular spot. Its visitors included English author William Makepeace Thackeray.

Southern icon Robert E. Lee visited and stayed at the house often. His friendship with the Low and Mackay families dated back to his days at West Point when one of his friends was John Mackay.

Andrew Low died in 1886 in England. His body was brought back to Savannah and buried at Laurel Grove Cemetery. Ownership of the house passed to his son, William, the husband of Juliette Gordon Low.

In 1905, William Low died and Juliette Gordon Low became the owner. In 1912, she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

After Juliette Gordon Low's death in 1927, the house was purchased by its present owner, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia.

In 1952, the Colonial Dames opened the house to the public as a museum.

It now receives some 25,000 visitors annually. Its collections include some 2,000 objects - architectural elements, books, decorative arts, fine arts and archival materials. Much of the material relates directly to Andrew Low, his family and their lives in 19th-century Savannah.